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Ballbot

The geniuses at Carnegie Mellon have come up with a robot that balances on a single sphere rather than moving on legs:

Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a new type of mobile robot that balances on a ball instead of legs or wheels. “Ballbot” is a self-contained, battery-operated, omnidirectional robot that balances dynamically on a single urethane-coated metal sphere.

It moves around like a trackball in your mouse.

“We wanted to create a robot that can maneuver easily and is tall enough to look you in the eye,” Hollis said. “Ballbot is tall and skinny, with a much higher center of gravity than traditional wheeled robots. Because it is omnidirectional, it can move easily in any direction without having to turn first.”

Not the end of the world, but I really like that it’s 6′ tall and balancing on a ball. Pioneering efforts in engineering always looks normal.

We are getting close to droids helping me with the lawn, and that’s really all I want.